Jason Perlow is a technologist with over two decades of experience with integrating large heterogeneous multi-vendor computing environments in Fortune 500 companies. He is Senior Technology Editor at ZDNet.

“Maybe I’m just cranky because I had to work a 12-hour day, waiting for an event to finish on West Coast time when I really just wanted to take my wife out to dinner instead,” Jason Perlow writes for ZDNet. “But Microsoft’s new Surface tablet still has catastrophe written all over it.”

“Absolutely nothing was said about price or availability. Only that the Windows RT/ARM version will ship around Windows 8 RTM timeframe, and the Pro/Intel version will ship 3 months after that,” Perlow writes. “So let me get this straight, Microsoft. You made journalists schlep across the country, no, the planet, for a product that might not ship for months? You’re lucky they didn’t burn the venue down.”

“Okay, no ship date, no prices and… no compelling 3rd-party applications or even Office to show on it whatsoever,” Perlow writes. “So we have no idea how well it performs, and how well supported it will be by 3rd-party software developers. No partnerships to speak of. Nada.”

MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote about “Surface,” in part, last night: “It’s all still just vapor. No prices. No shipping date(s). No actual sizes and weights. No nothing.”

Perlow writes, “Right now, Microsoft’s OEMs — with the exception of whatever ‘lucky’ company got the nod to do the contract manufacturing for this product — must be absolutely livid. To produce their own ARM and x86 Windows 8 systems, they have to pay exorbitant licensing fees. Windows RT is going to cost an estimated $85 per copy to your average OEM. A Windows 8 Professional license on x86 will be considerably more. I don’t care what the hell Microsoft says about partners having cost and feature parity, that’s $85 of pure margin advantage that Microsoft has and the OEM doesn’t.”

“All of this reeks of suicidal thinking from a company that wants to deep six its long-established manufacturer ecosystem,” Perlow writes. “It does not reflect the actions of a company that tried so hard to shed long-held industry perceptions of being a monopolist, and worst case, it could potentially re-ignite federal antitrust activity that Microsoft has spent more than ten years digging itself out of.”

what is wrong with MSFT the zdnet article title states?
simple: MSFT, like google or dull Dell, has lost its mojo + marbles since day 1, producing nothing but vaporware, surface aka facade crapware

WTF happened to MSFT hiring the world’s top 100 brains at a $1M salary + bonus each – who have never created a single practical item in 2 decades?!

when is the public going to boycott & give up on buying anything from them incl. stock shares?! how can humans be fooled for so long.

MSFT will end up like IBM’s PCs: IBM once the Big Blue unbeatable as a God, crumbled as it now sells only hot air (consulting) and tiles & carpets (on commercial level)!

to think that all those 1000s of brains working at MSFT, not to mention any of Apple’s competition, and to see that all hope in humanity depends on the cheap shit they all wish to challenge Apple with, it’s very sad to be or feel human.

if it were up to open-source, googly goo, microdough, dull dell, rim job, knockia, sam sung, sonyty, moto roller etc. the world would be in the stone age or at least not civilized – as it would take people for fools 24/7.

i take Apple’s closed but Smooth Operator a la Sade any time. at least you don’t have to masturbate from all the spastic, neurotic, hedonistic, politically correct, cumbersome, awkward CrypticWare that’s so complex, buggy, slow, virus-prone, crashy, inconsistent, chaotic, that you become contorted in physique & mind, probably get a seizure too young and/or wish to commit suicide personally or in your career – literally jumping out the Window(s) !

MSFT, it’s staff, fans…are all Crazy – but unlike Apple’s Think Different nuts, they do not think enough to change the world…

MSFT: stop f’g with me, us (as the 2 Jacksons sang), stop spitting on our intelligence, start respect our hard-earned $ that keep you alive you pricks. we long ago, started using non-dough stuff, so who are you producing for anymore, except those slaves to the rhythm of your licensed beat…

Microsoft’s problem is that they made this closer to a notebook replacement (with the keyboard, ports, OS and you just know the price will be more than an iPad).

So that creates three problems.

As opposed to Apple’s approach of making a compelling “third device”, this product will cannibalize notebook sales. That hurts OEMs, and it keeps squeezing MS margins on Windows.

It sets the bar high. Users will expect a notebook experience — people will be disappointed.

Developers may not jump in like they did on iPad. They can simply wait to see if this takes off, knowing their legacy software will work for some versions of the Surface.(And that’s a whole other problem. Try explaining to my Mom the difference between ARM and x86 Surface models).

Did they actually demo any of its usage at the keynote? Did they type on the amazing keyboard, or did they just show videos of it being typed on and what it would look like if it was actually working. I heard it crashed which makes sense since it’s Microsoft. Microsoft can even make vaporware crash!

Crash during demo, eh? Deja vu. One has to wonder if this was planned and simply a fact of life in the Microsoft tradition. That said, they will most likely sell to the IT/MS users of the world that migrate from Android or consider a tablet for the first time. The big battle brewing is IT corporate trying to convince users to give up their iPads. Remains to be seen if the tentative tablet is good for competition, or not. Too many vapor factors and CGI images out there right now …